Model comparison

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5.4 Mini

Google against OpenAI, compared on context, price, and verified benchmark results.

Catalog record checked September 5, 2026Individual provider fields may changeEvidence confidence: High — see receipts below

Google

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Balanced

OpenAI

GPT-5.4 Mini

Balanced

AI model capability comparison
Specification	Gemini 3.6 Flash	GPT-5.4 Mini
Provider	Google	OpenAI
Tier	Balanced	Balanced
Context window	Winner: 1M	400K
Max output	64K	Winner: 128K
Input / 1M tokens	$0.75	$0.75
Output / 1M tokens	Winner: $3.75	$4.50
Weights	Closed	Closed
Parameters	Not disclosedUnverified	Not disclosedUnverified
Reasoning levels	low, medium, high	none, low, medium, high
Modalities	text, image, video, audio, pdf	text, image
API model id	gemini-3.6-flash	gpt-5.4-mini
Released	July 21, 2026	March 17, 2026
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index (2026-08-14)	54	Not verifiedUnverified
Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index [high] (2026-08-14)	Not verifiedUnverified	46
Terminal-Bench 2.1 (2026-07)	78	Not verifiedUnverified
DeepSWE 1.1 (2026-07)	48.6	Not verifiedUnverified
Humanity's Last Exam (2026-08)	51.2	Not verifiedUnverified

Prices are USD per million tokens at standard rates, excluding batch and caching discounts. Bold indicates the better figure where one is objectively better. Values we could not confirm from the provider are shown as “Not verified” rather than estimated.

Benchmark receipts

2026-08-14: Artificial AnalysisComposite index blending reasoning, knowledge, and coding evals into one 0–100 score. Comparability: directly comparable — AA occasionally rebaselines the index scale between snapshots — a score captured on one date is only comparable to same-snapshot scores (check measuredAt).
2026-08: Google DeepMind model evaluation report (vendor, HLE-Verified full set)Frontier-knowledge ceiling: extremely hard multi-domain questions written to be near-impossible without deep expertise. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Subset/tool configurations (text-only vs with-tools) differ between vendors and materially change scores; must match configuration to compare.
2026-07: Google DeepMind model evaluation report (vendor, quoting Datacurve leaderboard; 3.7 report shows 49 — rounding conflict preserved)Agentic terminal work: multi-step tasks executed in a sandboxed shell environment. Comparability: comparable with caveat — Scores across Terminal-Bench major versions (v1 vs v2) are NOT comparable; harness configuration (container, time limits) also shifts results.

Pricing tiers: Gemini 3.6 Flash: $0.75/$3.75 per MTok (intro through 2026-12-31, then $1.50/$7.50). Multimodal input. · GPT-5.4 Mini: Standard $0.75/$4.50 per MTok; cached input $0.075/MTok; batch $0.375/$2.25.

BalancedRecord checked September 5, 2026

Gemini 3.6 Flash

Gemini 3.6 Flash is Google's balanced multimodal Flash tier with a 1M-token context.

Best for

Multimodal pipelines
High-volume processing
Video and audio input

Watch out

Superseded by 3.7 Flash on quality; still a solid mid-tier.

BalancedRecord checked September 3, 2026

GPT-5.4 Mini

GPT-5.4 Mini is OpenAI's efficient mid-tier for high-volume, well-scoped tasks at $0.75/$4.50.

Best for

High-volume calls
Mixed workloads
Cost-sensitive production

Watch out

400K context (vs 1.05M on GPT-5.4/5.5/5.6); verify long-context needs.

When the cheaper one wins

Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper on output at $3.75 per million tokens against $4.50 for GPT-5.4 Mini — about 1.2×. Use the cheaper tier for classification, extraction, summarisation, and any task where the expensive model’s extra score does not change the accepted output. The expensive one only pays if your hardest task actually fails on the cheap tier. These are standard-tier API rates, excluding batch and cache discounts.

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Evidence confidence: High

How strong and complete the evidence behind this comparison is — not a prediction of which model is better.

Pricing verified on both sides — Input and output rates are verified for both models.
4/5 core specs verified on both sides — Not published for at least one side: parameter count.
1 shared named benchmark with differing scores — Measured on: Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index.
Verified within the last 90 days — Newest catalog check was 6 days ago.
Both models carry source citations — Each side has at least two catalog sources on record.

Source receipts

Each catalog figure was checked against the provider or an independent second source on the date shown.

Gemini 3.6 Flash: Google — Gemini 3.6 Flash (accessed 2026-08-29)
Gemini 3.6 Flash: Google Cloud Gemini pricing (accessed 2026-08-29)
GPT-5.4 Mini: OpenAI — GPT-5.4 Mini & Nano (accessed 2026-08-29)
GPT-5.4 Mini: OpenAI API pricing (gpt-5.4-mini $0.75/$4.50) (accessed 2026-08-29)

Related comparisons

Diving deeper on one model? Gemini 3.6 Flash · GPT-5.4 Mini

Common questions

Gemini 3.6 Flash vs GPT-5.4 Mini

Answered from the verified figures on this page rather than general guidance.

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.4 Mini cheaper for input?

Both cost $0.75 per million input tokens at standard rates, so input price is not a deciding factor between them.

Is Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.4 Mini cheaper for output?

Gemini 3.6 Flash is cheaper at $3.75 per million output tokens, against $4.50 for GPT-5.4 Mini — roughly 1.2× the price. Output tokens usually dominate a real bill, so weigh the output rate more heavily than the input rate. These are base rates; Gemini 3.6 Flash has tiered pricing: $0.75/$3.75 per MTok (intro through 2026-12-31, then $1.50/$7.50). Multimodal input. GPT-5.4 Mini has tiered pricing: Standard $0.75/$4.50 per MTok; cached input $0.075/MTok; batch $0.375/$2.25.

Which has the larger context window, Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.4 Mini?

Gemini 3.6 Flash accepts 1M tokens against 400K for GPT-5.4 Mini. This only matters if you routinely send very long documents or large codebases.

Do Gemini 3.6 Flash and GPT-5.4 Mini support the same reasoning levels?

Gemini 3.6 Flash exposes low, medium, high, while GPT-5.4 Mini exposes none, low, medium, high.

Should I use Gemini 3.6 Flash or GPT-5.4 Mini?

Both sit in the balanced tier, so the choice usually comes down to price and context rather than capability. Gemini 3.6 Flash suits multimodal pipelines; GPT-5.4 Mini suits high-volume calls.

Next step

Choosing between them

The verified figures that separate this pair, computed from the catalog rather than restated boilerplate.

Context: Gemini 3.6 Flash takes 1M against 400K for GPT-5.4 Mini — only decisive if your prompts approach the smaller window.
Measured capability: Gemini 3.6 Flash leads Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index 54 to 46 (measured 2026-08-14).

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